Day 334 - Drenched Doggies

This is the earliest I have taken my photo of the day for a while... Rex and Milly were drenched this morning after the storm... lucky the inside of their kennel was bone dry huh?!

There were pretty fierce storms over Canberra last night, so much so that the thunder and heavy rain woke me overnight. These two must have gone a bit bezerk out there!

Day 333 - My Little Elf

Just because, he has a cute santa hat that he likes wearing around! Oh, check out the gorgeous lashes! Oh and the little daycare injury from some other tough baby!?

Day 332 - The Light at the end of the Tunnel

With only Maths comments to go for my reports, I sat down with a huge pile of year one text books today to confirm all my gradings and to finish marking the last maths assessment that I did. Only one lot of comments to go and at last I can see the end! As always, doing reports makes you think about better ways to assess the following year and I already have a bit of a list in my head! Overall though, I was pretty happy with how many of my students progressed :)

Day 331 - An Afternoon by the Pool

As the weather had dried out a bit by this afternoon and it was also pretty warm, I decided to get out Jenna's old clamshell pool for Henry to try out. He seemed to enjoy splashing about in the water, putting pebbles into the water, climbing in and out over and over and having a little stomp in the water! I can't wait to take him back to the local pool this year to see how he takes it all in - he was pretty stunned by it all last summer! In this photo, you can see his brand new hat, that Mum made last week for him. Pretty cute and glad that he is so happy to wear hats!

Day 330 - Quilts in Braidwood

Mum, Dad, Henry and I went to Braidwood and Bungendore today for an outing. It was supposed to be the annual hanging of the quilts in Braidwood, but it seemed that because of all the rain, there actually weren't that many quilts out. I imagine that they usually look very impressive hanging from all the railings! Although it is not really my thing, I can really appreciate the work that goes into one and I do agree that one is nice to own. I have sometimes thought that I would like to try making one, but I don't really see it in the near future; not with my long wish list and to do list, anyway!

Day 328 - And On It Goes!

I am so sick of dragging this folder everywhere I go! Well it feels like that anyway... Only about a week left until reports are due and I am getting there. I often find that my work bag comes home full of intention, but due to a big lack of time, things rarely get pulled out... not lately though!

Day 327 - A Sad Goodbye

I know it's just a tv show, but I was really sad to see the last episode of Spicks and Specks tonight. I'm pretty sure that I would have seen almost every episode over the last 8 years from Adam Hills and Hamish Blake's Christmas kiss to Adam Hills dressed as the Transvestite from Rocky Horror, to Barry Morgan and his Wonderful World of Organs and to Frank Woodley's infamous slipping out of his swimming costume! What will I watch on Wednesday nights now?

Day 326 - Princess in Town

Henry and I braved the rain this afternoon with maybe a few hundred others to wait to see Princess Mary and Prince Frederik of Denmark who were at the War Memorial this afternoon to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. After a 20 minute wait in the drizzle, we spotted the police escort coming down Anzac Parade and Mary and Fred finally arrived. She was so elegant and of course looked absolutely gorgeous. After stopping for a brief wave they went inside. Now if Henry had been playing nice I may have been able to wait for the royal couple to come back out, but that was not the case! Peta (friend and fellow blogger) did wait and got a much better photo. She even got to meet the princess. Her girls Ava and Olivia were most excited to give the flowers they had brought, as well. For a better close up, you could look at Peta's blog!

Day 325 - Moths at Last!

We were very excited this morning, to find that our moths had emerged from the yellow cocoons in our silkworm community! The moths are a beautiful creamy white colour and nice and fat looking. There were plenty of eggs (did you know you can keep some in the fridge so you have a batch of caterpillars next year?) and about 6 moths as well. Some of the children were a bit confused by the two siamese twin moths! Yes they were a bit stuck together all day - looks like there will be more eggs tomorrow!

Day 324 - Indoor Picnic

Our mothers' group, which is now a playgroup, had a Christmas picnic planned for today but with the sudden rain overnight, it had to be relocated indoors. Although Henry doesn't get to see this bunch of little friends so often now, he seemed to have a ball, running around with all the others today. He attempted a tiny slippery dip, threw plastic balls around and had a go on this little bike as well, which he really seemed to enjoy. He even managed to get off the bike at the end all by himself. It was great to see everyone again, even though we didn't quite have our planned picnic!

Day 323 - Putting in an Order with Santa!

I can't believe it is already a year since the first time Henry met Santa! This year he needed Jenna to be in the photo with him, and I am pretty happy with the result! Although I didn't take this photo, I think it is as good as one of my own, considering I had to brighten the image up, fix the red eyes and straighten it (don't have vertical stripes if you can't keep the camera straight huh?) The 'photographer' really only pressed the button! Thanks to Dale for getting the big smiles from Henry!

Day 321 - Dangers of Gardening

MYRMECIA FASCIATA

I was off work today due to a toothache and dentist appointment. Luckily I found something to take my mind off the toothache before I went to the dentist! I decided to pull a couple of weeds out around the letterbox after dropping Henry off at day care and made this little "friend". Apparently bulldog ants are not uncommon in Canberra. I didn't have time to grab my macro lens, but I think you get the idea. A tip - aloe vera works a treat on the bites from these little devils. I just hope they are only out the front of the house or I would really worry about Henry being bitten!

Day 320 - Mail Order Excitement

My favourite kind of delivery came today and this one was so fast. I ordered these nail polishes off a US website for a couple of reasons; inexpensive, brands you can't readily buy in Australia and get a load of the colour selections! I have a bit of a thing for glitters at the moment, so there is quite a few in this bunch.  Might take me a while to try them all out!

Day 319 - Tropical Rocky Road

I made this one last night, for our Parent Helper Morning Tea today. Basic ingredients were:

2 blocks of white chocolate
1 pack of macadamias
1 pack of dried mango
Apricot marshmallows
Toasted coconut (just a handful)

Day 318 - Shopping and Coffee!

Spotlight had a 30% off Sale yesterday and today and so I took myself along to pick up a few things. Amongst them, a set of red bedsheets, two more patterns, a couple of pieces of fabric and a set of Christmas coffee cups... Henry felt that he deserved one of these for his patience, once we arrived home :)

Day 317 - Finally Some Progress!

Not much progress, but I did manage to find some time to cut out my dress pattern this afternoon! Now it will probably sit for a bit until my reports are done, but all good things take time!

Day 316 - Jenna's Little Soiree

Jenna was allowed to have two friends over for dinner tonight for her birthday. I have to say that it was a big improvement from the time where Dale and I offered to host her 7th birthday with 11 children invited (the less said about that one, the better!) Jenna's friends were polite, adored Henry, watched Twilight, helped cook dinner and were no problem! This is a pic of them with Henry about to sing Happy Birthday to Jenna. I made her chocolate cupcakes with a white chocolate ganache. Fun to decorate, but I do recommend waiting til the ganache is set (I got a bit over excited about decorating and they turned a bit drippy). I again, loved Henry's "birthday cake face"... Mummy the cake is on fire!!!

Great cupcake recipe here: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22173/chocolate+cupcakes

Day 315 - Builder at Work

I took a few photos of the silkworms today and thought this one was pretty interesting because you could see the cocoon in progress, being spun around it. The kids are fascinated by the worms and are really looking forward to the moths appearing soon.

Day 314 - Long Lost Hat Returned!

Henry was very excited to receive an envelope in the post today containing his long lost hat, left at Nanna and Opa's on the weekend. In fact he had a huge grin on his face when he peered into the envelope; he threw his old hat off and put on his very missed hat straightaway :-)

Day 313 - Happy Birthday Jenna!

Jenna turned ten today! When I first met Dale, Jenna was only 3 years old. So much has happened in the last 7 years and of course Jenna has grown so much! We just had a little cheesecake after dinner tonight and the birthday cake will be on Saturday when Jenna's friends come over. As you can probably tell from the photo, Henry was very confused by the candles!

Day 312 - Bills... Bills... Bills...

They always seem to come at once don't they? That will teach me better than to open 6 weeks' worth of mail at once... of course they are all due now!

Day 311 - Cocoons Appear Over the Weekend!

1M was very excited to find 10 yellow silk cocoons in our little silkworm community this morning! They really are interesting little creatures, who have grown very fat over the last week or so, obviously due to their constant devouring of mulberry leaves!

Day 310 - Dani and David's New Slab!

We went over to David and Dani's brand new concrete slab this morning. The concrete was poured on Friday and it needed a hose to assist with it drying well. It certainly was hot over there (no trees on the block yet) and in the end, the hosing did go slightly off course for a much needed cool off, which all thoroughly enjoyed!

Day 309 - Primary School Memories

Today we went along to the 50th Anniversary Fete at my old primary school, Marayong Heights PS. Although I was a little disappointed with the amount of memorabilia on display (I think a lot of things may have once been lost in a fire) I did get a little laugh to see an edition of "Classroom Capers" which my year 6 class began. I don't think it lasted long (I actually think we only published 2 or 3 times in 1987) but I do remember being the advice columnist 'Eddie' and typing up the page on Mum's daisy wheel electric typewriter!

Day 308 - Gifts from Nanna and Opa

We arrived in Sydney tonight and Henry quickly found a spinning top that his Opa made for him that he immediately loved. In this photo, Henry is holding the top while wearing his beloved hat, made by his Nanna!

Day 307 - Just Because

Just because it's a cute photo. I love how he sits on the steps to play!

Day 306 - Have a Milk With Me!

Jenna had a lie down with Henry tonight when he had a bottle before bed and was caught by surprise when he offered to share!

Day 305 - Melbourne Cup Day

I did take a photo of the Donna Hay chocolate cheesecake that I made, but by the time I got to it with my camera it was looking a little demolished! So instead, the recipe and my fascinator, made a couple of years ago with my trusty hot glue gun. Although we never get to see the race (because you can't show it to school kids) I do enjoy our Melbourne Cup Day lunch and sweeps. I was lucky to triple my $12 this year!